Goodbye Slaven, Welcome David

Ciaran Judge

3 months ago

So with a heavy heart, we say goodbye to Slaven, without doubt a decent man, full of integrity and dignity but even his most ardent of supporters could see the writing was on the wall. West Ham are in serious trouble here, the club has no plan, no identity and the team is lacking fight, organisation and most worryingly basic fitness.

This is not what we expected when we left Upton Park, the London stadium was meant to take the club to the next level, and we all naively assumed that would be the case. The club are in need of a firm and experienced hand to stabilise the situation and try and galvanise not only the team but the club as a whole. The atmosphere around the club is awful, we are so fragmented, a group of fans who don’t believe in the board watching a team that doesn’t believe in the manager, and it’s been like that for so long it’s starting to take route. Enter David Moyes – once rated highly enough to be given the Manchester United job, his reputation has slowly diminished through his spells at Real Sociedad and most recently at Sunderland, who he took down with a whimper last season.

It must be said that there are mitigating circumstances to all of his recent failures, at Manchester United, he faced an impossible task of replacing the greatest there has ever been with an ageing squad and subsequent managers of that club haven’t set the world alight by the lofty standards of what went before. At Sociedad Moyes hadn’t coached abroad before and although it has been said he didn’t immerse himself fully in the culture of the league or the country, one can be sympathetic towards him to a certain extent and at least he was brave enough to make the step outside his comfort zone. Finally Sunderland, well they are a club in a tailspin and West Ham would do well to look in their direction with some trepidation.

Moyes’ achievements in his managerial career should not be overshadowed by the last four years, he has a proven record at Everton, led the team to the Champions League, and the FA Cup final, and he has a clear plan and will demand a work ethic from his players.

His appointment has been widely derided but Moyes will be hungry to re-establish himself, if he can unite our club it will be his biggest achievement by far. So enough with the griping and moaning let’s get behind him and his team. As for Slaven we will miss you mate, I don’t want to think of home humpings both last season and this, I will remember your first season, the win at Anfield, at the Emirates, at the Etihad, beating Chelsea and Spurs and the final game at Upton Park, thanks for the memories.